US may have paid millions to dead farmers

GAO says $22M provided a year or more after demise

7:02 PM,
Jul. 30, 2013

Written by

Christopher Doering
Gannett Washington Bureau

The U.S. Department of Agriculture may have doled out millions in subsidies to dead farmers, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The nonpartisan agency reviewed crop insurance data from 2008 to 2012 and found $22 million in subsidies and allowances may have been provided on behalf of about 3,400 program policyholders two or more years after death. The GAO said the USDA's Risk Management Agency, which administers crop insurance programs, does not have necessary controls in place to prevent improper subsidy payments on behalf of dead farmers.